Charles Plowden (born at

Plowden Hall Plowden is a hamlet (place), hamlet in the civil parishes in England, parish of Lydbury North, Shropshire, England. It is in the valley of the River Onny and lies 3 miles east of Bishop's Castle. Plowden was one of the stations on the Bishops Cas ...

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...

, 1743; died at

Jougne Jougne () is a commune in the Doubs department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in eastern France. Geography The commune is situated from Pontarlier and from the Swiss border. It lies in the Jura Mountains, which form the border betwee ...

Doubs Doubs (, ; ; frp, Dubs) is a department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in Eastern France. Named after the river Doubs, it had a population of 543,974 in 2019.Jesuit , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particu ...

, teacher, writer and administrator.

Life

He was a descent of

Edmund Plowden Sir Edmund Plowden (1519/20 – 6 February 1585) was a distinguished English lawyer, legal scholar and theorist during the late Tudor period. Early life Plowden was born at Plowden Hall, Lydbury North, Shropshire. He was the son of Humphrey ...

, and was raised in a Catholic family. Educated at the

College of St Omer A college (Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offerin ...

, he entered the Society of Jesus in 1759, and was ordained

at Rome, in 1770.Burton, Edwin. "Charles Plowden." The Catholic Encyclopedia
Vol. 12. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 12 January 2019 At the suppression of the Society, in 1773, he was minister of the College of Bruges. The Austro-Belgic government, in its execution of the decree of suppression, kept him imprisoned for some months after the closing of the college. He wrote an account of its destruction. After his release from confinement, he was for a time at the

College of Liège A college (Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offering ...

, which the prince-bishop of Liège had offered to the English ex-Jesuits. Returning to England, he became a tutor in the family of Mr. Weld, and chaplain at

Lulworth Castle Lulworth Castle, in East Lulworth, Dorset, England, situated south of the village of Wool, is an early 17th-century hunting lodge erected in the style of a revival fortified castle, one of only five extant Elizabethan or Jacobean buildings of t ...

, where he assisted at the consecration of Bishop Carroll, in 1790. He preached the sermon on the occasion, and published an account of the establishment of the new See of Baltimore. Father Plowden had a large share in the direction of

Stonyhurst College Stonyhurst College is a co-educational Catholic Church, Roman Catholic independent school, adhering to the Society of Jesus, Jesuit tradition, on the Stonyhurst, Stonyhurst Estate, Lancashire, England. It occupies a Grade I listed building. Th ...

, founded in 1794. After the restoration of the Society of England, he was the first master of novices, at Hodder. In 1817, he was appointed Provincial, and at the same time, Rector of Stonyhurst, holding the later office till 1819. Summoned to Rome for the XXth

General Congregation The General Congregation is an assembly of the Jesuit representatives from all parts of the world, and serves as the highest authority in the Society of Jesus , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption ...

(1820) and election of the

Superior General of the Jesuits The superior general of the Society of Jesus is the leader of the Society of Jesus, the Catholic religious order also known as the Jesuits. He is generally addressed as Father General. The position sometimes carries the nickname of the Black Po ...

, he died suddenly in

(France), on his journey homeward, and, through mistaken information to his mission and identity, he was buried with full military honours. His attendant had gathered the information that he had been at Rome in connection with business concerning a "general", and the town authorities, mixing things, concluded that he was a general of the British army, hence the military funeral.

Works

In addition to his many administrative activities and occupations, Plowden was a prolific writer. He was protagonist in the Catholic polemics ahead of the eventual

Catholic Relief Bill The Roman Catholic Relief Bills were a series of measures introduced over time in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries before the Parliaments of Great Britain and the United Kingdom to remove the restrictions and prohibitions impose ...

Sommervogel Carlos Sommervogel (8 January 1834 – 4 March 1902) was a French Jesuit scholar. He was author of the monumental ''Bibliothèque de la Compagnie de Jésus'', which served as one of the major references for the editors of the Catholic Encyclope ...

gives a list of twenty-two publications of which he was the author, besides several works in manuscript which have been preserved. He was a lifelong correspondent of Bishop Carroll and wrote a eulogy on the death of his friend in 1815. A large collection of the letters which the interchanged, originals or copies, exists at Stonyhurst and

Georgetown College Georgetown College is a private Christian college in Georgetown, Kentucky. Chartered in 1829, Georgetown was the first Baptist college west of the Appalachian Mountains. The college offers 38 undergraduate degrees and a Master of Arts in educat ...

, as also in the Baltimore diocesan archives.

References

;Attribution * {{DEFAULTSORT:Plowden, Charles 1743 births 1821 deaths Recusants 18th-century English Jesuits 19th-century English Jesuits